Determined and motivated.. sometimes

bride2befit4life

Hi MFP community! I have been on a long journey using this app for almost ten years now. I’ve punched in my food and exercise almost every day and waited for the numbers on the scale to change. And sometimes they did. Sometimes they didn’t. Many different things motivated me through the years. Every March I’d countdown the days left to achieve my ‘summer bod’, every August I’d countdown the days left to fit into the sexy Halloween costume, and every November I’d scramble for my ‘holiday bod’ so that I could over indulge and impress my family members with how put together I look. Year after year I’d get so depressed not meeting my numbers and give up and then try to re-motivate. Today, I have 292 days till I get married and I really don’t want to start another countdown that might leave me in total disappointment at the end of it. So I want to ask the community here, what goals do you set for yourself that work? What positive goals do you strive for that you achieve? I am ready to learn and befriend all!

middlehaitch

Set yourself a reasonable calorie goal, not one that you are hanging on by the skin of your teeth.
Not sure how much you have to lose, but if it is under 50lbs 0.5-1lbs a week would be good.

Don't give it a time line. You could lose between 20 to 40 lbs in the 40 ish weeks you have.

Move more. Make a reasonable goal with this too. Personally I know that ~60 min 6 days a week is what I can do without burning out. I've been doing it for almost 10 years now.
Do some cardio and some resistance training, your body will thank you.

As for goals, mine is to enjoy life and be healthy. I learn new fitness skills for my vacations and, got to admit, some days that is part of what gets me to the gym.

You are about to get married, I'm about to retire, do it for the future you want, not an arbitrary goal.

Cheers, h.

Duck_Puddle

My goals are to stick to my calorie goal, and do whatever exercise is on the plan for the day. If I do those things, the rest will happen.

My calorie goal is based on a deficit I can reasonably sustain while still doing the activity and kind of life things I enjoy (meaning I can have a cupcake now and then) and i have enough energy to do my workouts.

My workout plan is based on my particular fitness goals (meaning some cardio and some strength training doing exercises I enjoy on a schedule that works for me). If I follow this plan, I will get faster/stronger/more flexible/be able to do more stuff.

I set my goals on the things I can control (my behaviors around the actual process).

I don’t set goals based on the results I want to achieve (lose x pounds...). I’ll lose it when I lose it.

Meanwhile, I’ll focus on the things I CAN do and that’s meeting my goals to be near my calorie goal and doing my planned exercise. If I do those most of the time, I’m golden and the results happen.

88olds

In losing mode goal #1 was track my intake. The one thing that was completely within my control.

Eating within the target limits was next. And then posting a loss for the week. Generally if I did the first two, I got #3.

Something I stayed away from were calendar driven goals. X lbs by Y date seems to be a way to turn weight loss success, losses, into failure, not on schedule.

I guess my last goal was a downward trend that I could live with. Losing enough that I felt I was making progress, but not so strict that it was painful.

kommodevaran

what goals do you set for yourself that work? What positive goals do you strive for that you achieve?

Stick to my calorie goal in the most pleasurable way possible.
Ba a little active on the daily.

ClairePeters56V

The day you decided to lose weight and entered the gym was the day you became stronger than you ever were. Just keep this spirit up and there's no stopping you I'm sure. Have a look at this Keep yourself motivated for weight loss. This should keep you going. Best of luck.

TavistockToad

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818701/the-myth-of-motivation-and-what-you-need-instead/p1

HoneyBadger302

What works for me may very well not work for you.

My biggest reason/motivator for working out is my racing - take a couple months off from the gym, and I can tell. My riding starts to suffer, and at race pace, I start to struggle. There are plenty of side benefits that come from working out, and side effects I certainly enjoy, but the racing is what drags my butt out of bed at 4:30.

As for eating, that's been a struggle. Counting calories and meal prep work great - in the winter months, when my routine is, well, routine but then it goes out the window when summer hits and I'm on the road, traveling here and there, etc.

I took an assessment of my lifestyle, what my options were (knowing that CICO is the primary factor), what would work no matter where I was, and after that decided I was approaching things wrong for me/my life. So, found something that seemed like a much more manageable thing. It's only been a couple weeks, so hard to say if it's really working yet, but I feel like it is and is something that isn't going to just disappear when my weeks change or go hay-wire.

It's not about motivation, it's about finding what you can sustain and your reasons for doing so. If success required motivation for every step, no one would be successful. It's committing to the change, committing to the work and, as I like to say "embrace the suck." Because sometimes, it's just going to suck.